Re: Unilang: the Morphology

Hi!

Raymond Brown <ray.brown@...> writes:
> ...you must.
> e.g. know what belongs to different subordinate clauses & what to the main
> clause.
Hmm, in my current conlang this is not always clear (but often).  It
can be inferred from context in most cases.

Examples:

    jo tax    su  Na-li  hjung.
    I  watch  REF Mary  strong.

Either:

    jo tax [su Na-li hjung].
    `I watch Mary, who is strong.'
or
    [jo tax su Na-li] hjung.
     `Mary, whom I watch, is strong.'

Basically, this is a difference in focus.  However, you *can* make it
clear in my language.

Should I rethink the design? :-)


Oh yeah, and from my point of view, the following categories should
not be grammaticalized in auxlangs:

   - case: use word order, it's easier
     -> English (almost)

   - number: can be inferred or optionally marked
     -> Japanese

   - definedness: can be inferred or optionally marked
     -> Russian, Chinese, Japanese, etc.

   - tense, mood, aspect: can be inferred or optionally marked
     -> many.

Ok, maybe interrogative mood is a good thing to have.

I threw out all of these from my current conlang, although it's not
meant to be an auxlang, but a simplistic test.

**Henrik